Tenants at “Little Thailand”, as Golden Mile Complex has come to be known, are bidding it adieu as the building is set for redevelopment.
A popular hangout for the Thai community and local residents for its array of Thai goods, eateries and bars among the mixed bag of tenants that included tour agencies and bus operators, Golden Mile will be vacated by May.
The iconic building, designed by local architects Gan Eng Oon, William Lim and Tay Kheng Soon and completed in 1973, was one of Singapore’s first high-rise mixed-use developments and is gazetted for conservation.
Formerly known as Woh Hup Complex, it redefined modern urban living in the 1970s and exemplified the ingenuity and ambition of our pioneer generation of architects, engineers and builders.
Situated between Nicoll Highway and Beach Road, it remains one of Singapore’s finest examples of Brutalist architecture, and an important icon from our initial years of post-war nation-building.
Brutalist (or Heroic) design is an architectural style that came about in the 1950s and is characterised by bare-bones construction that uses raw concrete in sculptural, angular shapes which feature steel and glass.
With its conservation, Golden Mile Complex joins a handful of other post-independence heritage buildings like the Singapore Conference Hall and Jurong Town Hall that are legally protected.
Previous media reports have stated that Golden Mile Complex is home to about 400 shops, 220 offices and 70 residential units.
Over the years, it has become a popular location for shops selling Thai products, its many Thai eateries and as a gathering place for Thai workers in Singapore.
It was sold for $700 million in May 2022 to a consortium comprising Perennial Holdings, Sino Land and Far East Organization which said the 16-storey building, with its signature terraced facade, will be “sensitively restored”.
VISUALLY DISTINCTIVE
The rooftop area of Golden Mile Complex featuring iconic yellow pillars.
By May, the building will be vacated and handed over to the developers. Long-time tenants, customers and staff are making preparations for their final goodbyes.
The Straits Times looks back on what gave the building its unique flavour.
The seedier underbelly of Golden Mile was on its upper floors, which housed tawdry discos and bars where night animals went to paint the town neon. Many of these photographs were taken in 2022.
A poster advertising a “drive home service” on a wall in the complex, and a woman in the doorway of a nightlife establishment.
A visitor to the building against the backdrop of the directory of tenants at the ground floor of Golden Mile Complex.
Auxiliary policemen on one of the upper floors of the complex in 2022. The place had a reputation for being a hotbed of violent incidents.
Thai music CDs and magazines for sale at a shop in the complex.
Mr Ande Lai, photographed in 2022 serving a customer at his photo shop in Golden Mile Complex that also sold health supplements. Now 74, he has worked in the building since 1972 and moved into a residential unit there in 1981.
Thai Supermarket, a mainstay at the complex since 1985, photographed in 2018. The supermarket will move to Aperia Mall in Kallang Avenue in May 2023.
A customer receiving a hair treatment at a beauty salon in Golden Mile Complex, photographed in 2018.
Clothes for sale at a shop in the mall.
A masseuse waiting outside a massage parlour, while a woman sits in an empty shop along a dim corridor full of shuttered units.
A 2022 photograph of a shop selling Thai Buddhist artefacts and amulets, some of which could purportedly increase the user’s luck in areas such as romance or wealth.
A woman praying at the statue of Phra Phrom, also known as the four-faced Buddha, at an altar outside Golden Mile Complex.
A man photographed in 2022 resting on a sofa in the complex.
The complex, informally known as Little Thailand, gives its predominantly Thai shop owners and shoppers the familiar taste of home, with restaurants and cafes serving Thai food.
A Thai restaurant in Golden Mile Complex.
A noticeboard with Thai fliers in the complex, and mailboxes for retail and office tenants on the ground floor.
One of the porthole windows that punctuate the complex’s facade – adding ship-themed stylistic touches to the Brutalist building – lets some light seep into a space that formerly held a Thai restaurant and now lies empty.